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"While the England squad is dominated by players from Leeds and Warrington"

Surely you mean Leeds and Wigan as both have 7 players in.

"these autumn internationals are unlikely to do much to help England breach the gap between themselves and the southern hemisphere superpowers" George Riley

New Zealand have not won in England since 2005 although when we go over there they beat us fairly convincingly.

Results over the past decade would certainly suggest that the gap is closer than many give England credit for. I think individual NZ player reputation often gives people the impression that they are way ahead of us. It has been t!t-for-tat for a while now but the main difference is that they found a way to beat Australia twice in meaningful finals.

@3 Actually it's three finals the Kiwis have beaten the Aussies in 2005 Tri Nations (where they also beat them in Sydney in the same tournament), 2008 World Cup and 2010 Tri nations (having also lost in golden point extra time in 2006 Tri nations). NZ don't fear the Aussies like so many England teams seem to and the Aussies actually respect them.

The reason why NZ are seen as a better team is because so many of them play in the NRL and in Benji Marshall have arguably the player with the most flair in the competition. A quarter of all Toyota Cup players are now Kiwi as well (although some high profile ones have chosen to play for Australia when they reach first grade) and the Warriors reached all three grade grand finals last year.

England have got top forwards now in the NRL in Ellis, Graham and the Burgess bros but crucially for the first time in ages a back in Widdop playing at the top level with three of the greatest players at this moment in Slater, Cronk and Cameron Smith. Gareth Widdops performance in this years Grand Final showed he really is getting better and better and I just hope Steve McNamara uses him next year if his form remains good.

This years internationals are more important for Wales and France I think in order to build a team to do well next year. England should win comfortably but it will have little impact on what happens next year.

Ah yes, of course. It is three. Nevertheless, that is all that really seperates us.

That NZ can beat Australia and England can't is an enormous difference not a minor one, given that to win anything in international RL, Australia have to be beaten.

Where do you begin to analyse the game for England? There are decent enough players in the team to upset the apple cart but when it comes to the 'all important game' England leave themselves in the change rooms! The biggest hurdle in RL is to conquer Australia, I think England are much closer to NZ than ever before. Australia have contested all 13 WC's and have won 9 of them, failing only to reach the final ONCE 60 years ago! Australia don't fear NZ but they do respect them. Even if England got one over Australia you can't just say "yep we're at the same level now". The team would have to win consistently to really gauge the 'gap' between to two sides.

I'll be a bit disappointed if Luke Burgess walks into the England team on the back of a decent season in the NRL. Generally English forwards have no problem adapting to the NRL, and with the more simple style of forward play over there often stand out. He's no better than when he left here when he wasn't seen as good enough for the national side.

Otherwise the squad seems good, looking for a few ruthless displays from the boys.

But Luke Burgess has had an outstanding year playing against the best forwards Australia and New Zealand have to offer.

Good article George, many thanks. We will not learn much about England in this series, but regular internationals are important to the sport as a whole and hopefully Wales and France will benefit from the experience too.

I think Sinfield has to play in the same position he does for Leeds; I for one cannot stand loose forwards playing at stand-off. Tried, tested and usually failed.

That said, Zak Hardacker has been terrific at fullback for Leeds and I would love to see what Sam Tomkins can do at stand-off; he can create space and against Australia we need as many playmakers on the field as possible. Forward power is important, but with Smith, Slater, Cronk and Thurston the Kangaroos always have options when creativity is needed.

Cheers